Monday, February 22, 2010

The world’s attention is focused this week on the Winter Olympics being held in Vancouver, Canada. Athletes from different countries are competing to be acknowledged as the best in their respective winter sport. Their success depends on their own personal resolve, training, and self-discipline. In today’s Gospel you and I heard Jesus say, “Come, follow me”. Great Fast or Lent is a gifted time of preparation for meeting the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ! We have to want to respond favorably to Jesus’ invitation. We need to submit ourselves to self-discipline in fasting and participation in prayer services at our parish. Oh, what an acknowledgment you and I will receive when we decide to go for the gold in following Jesus!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Archbishop Stefan has procured an official replica of the Shroud of Turin for display at our Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Philadelphia. The 14’X 3’ Shroud replica will be on exhibition at the Cathedral from February 21, 2010 – June 29th, 2010.

The Shroud of Turin is the most analyzed artifact in the world yet remains a mystery. The 14-foot long linen cloth that has been in Turin Italy for over 400 years and bears the faint front and back image of a 5’10” bearded, crucified man with apparent wounds and bloodstains that match the crucifixion account as recorded in the Bible. Millions of people over the centuries have believed it to be the actual burial shroud of Jesus of Nazareth. The historical trail of the Shroud trails back through Italy, France, Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and may have originated in the Middle East according to botanical evidence.

A team of 24 scientists in 1981 concluded that it was not the work of an artist. They found no visible trace of pigment, paint or dye or other artistic substances on the cloth. Other discoveries have defied explanation such as why the image shows up as a positive image in a photographic negative. The image also contains 3-D or distance information indicating the cloth must have wrapped a human form at the time the image was created. The blood is AB positive with human DNA. Skeptics have mounted numerous attempts to show how a medieval artist could have produced the image but all have been inadequate to fully explain how the mysterious image was formed. The image is so superficial it only penetrates the top micro-fibers to the depth of a single bacterium. In addition there is no image under the blood, meaning the blood was on the cloth before the image. No attempt at replicating the image has resolved these two key attributes. If the cloth indeed wrapped a corpse, there are no stains of decomposition.The Exhibit will begin with vespers at 5:00PM at the Cathedral on the First Sunday of the Great Fast, February 21, 2010. Clergy and parishioners are invited to join with us and to have representatives bring crosses/ icons/plaschanytsias from the parishes for this opening Procession for the Sunday of Orthodoxy.

On April 9 & 10 at 7:00PM in the Cathedral, there will be a guest speaker presenting: The Shroud of Turin Mystery Tour. Russ Breault, president of the Shroud of Turin Education Project Inc., will present a 90 minute fast moving big screen experience using over 150 images covering all aspects of research on the Shroud. Please contact the Phila Shroud Office for group information.

Please use this opportunity to join with us, especially during this season of the Great Fast, in spreading the word of Jesus’ love for us in the Shroud story. Please consider organizing groups from the parish and community.

The Cathedral will be opened:Tuesday and Thursday from 1:00PM- 6:00PMSaturday from 11:00AM-5:30PMand Sunday from 8:00AM-3:00PM.

Tours are available of the Cathedral, Museum and Shroud exhibition during this time. There is no fee for the exhibits. Contact Archpriest Daniel Troyan at the Shroud Office at 215-922-2917. or visit our website http://www.philashroud.org/